Sunday, 17 March 2013

White chocolate tart with rhubarb and mini eggs

I saw a recipe for white chocolate pots with rhubarb in the
Sainsbury’s magazine (in my opinion, the best of the supermarket magazines) and
used it as the basis for this tart. I added
a biscuit case and simplified the rhubarb element and came up with a rather
smart dessert. The ring of rhubarb makes it look like the tart is wearing a flamboyant feather boa!

I think the flavours would work well for an Easter dessert
so decided to decorate it with an Easter theme using my Lakeland egg moulds for which I have provided a link but am sad to see they are a discontinued
item. What a shame. Oh well.

The filling for the tart is sweet so I decided to leave the
rhubarb on the tart side for contrast.
The filling and rhubarb are both soft so the biscuit base and the chocolate
eggs add some welcome texture.

This is a pleasing tart which would work well as dessert for
an Easter dinner. I chose to serve it
with a cup of tea as a mid-afternoon treat but that’s always my preference for
cakes and bakes! I think next time I
might add another leaf of gelatine to get a cleaner slice. It would be lovely without any fruit
topping...

...but I can’t resist rhubarb:

I could probably have made it look neater by cooking the
rhubarb less – when you’re baking things and blogging you often have a trade off between
making it look nice for the photo/presentation and making it how you like
it. Here, I went for how I like it and
it does look a bit untidy. Never mind, thankfully
I don’t come from a family who look at food for too long!

Start by making the base: blitz the hobnobs and butter
together in a food processor. If you don’t
have a processor, put the biscuits in a bag and beat with a rolling pin then
stir into melted butter. Either way, you’re
aiming for a grainy wet sand feel.

Press the crumbs into a 25cm pie plate or flan tin. I used a disposable foil pie plate that was
3cm deep. Take care to bring the biscuit
mix up the sides of the tin or plate as you need it to be bowl shaped to hold
the filling – this filling will be runnier than cheesecake and you need a good
structure to retain it!

Refrigerate.

Now make the filling: place the milk, cream, sugar and
vanilla seeds along with the vanilla pod into a saucepan and bring to almost
boiling point.

While you are waiting for the milk to heat, place the
gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water to soften.

When the milk is almost at boiling point remove from the
heat and add the white chocolate. Use a
whisk to ensure it melts.

Squeeze all the water from the softened gelatine leaves and
whisk into the milk mixture.

When you are happy that both chocolate and gelatine have
completely melted, leave the pan to cool for 20 minutes.

Stir the mixture before pouring into the chilled biscuit
case. Don’t worry if you can’t fit all
the filling in – simply pour any extra into glass dishes for a bonus dessert!

Once you have filled the case return to the refrigerator rapidly
– the biscuit crust is not completely watertight and you want the filling to
start setting as soon as possible. Setting
will require a minimum of 4 hours but ideally overnight.

Prepping the rhubarb can be done at the same time, but I don’t
advise putting it on the tart until you’re ready to serve as the juices might
seep and look messy.

Place the chopped rhubarb into a saucepan along with the
sugar and water. Heat gently until the
rhubarb starts to break down and soften.
Take care to watch this process as you don’t want the rhubarb to become
mushy. I like the rhubarb to become a
little pulpy but with some pieces kept whole – but do it how you like it.

When the rhubarb is ready, drain it before returning to the
pan and stirring through the grenadine (if using). If you have grenadine I advise using it as it
adds a sherbet flavour.

Taste the rhubarb at this point and add more sugar if
needed.

Keep the rhubarb in the fridge until ready to finish the
tart.

To make the easter eggs simply melt the chocolate and spoon
into the egg moulds.

Refrigerate until set then turn out of the mould and use a
little extra melted chocolate to stick the halves together.

To build the finished tart spoon the rhubarb chunks over the
top and dot the eggs all over. If the
rhubarb has oozed a lot of liquid it is advisable to strain it again before
putting it on top of the tart.

For the longest time I was not a fan of rhubarb but my friends in the allotments keep me supplied with fresh stalks. Through experimentation I have found that rhubarb can be lovely. Who can resist that beautiful pink colour! This looks like a wonderful way to use some of my next supply when it gets passed over the fence. Thanks!

I do wish I were a rhubarb lover because the pink stuff is just so pretty! Your tart looks lovely, and how inventive of you to have adapted the recipe - I would never have thought of that! Your little eggs are very cute too.

I must admit, I've only ever had rhubarb in a crumble - which was lovely - and have never cooked with it. Ths looks so good though, it'd certainly tempt me to look out for some and get in the kitchen! :)

Looks lovely - I love rhubarb too and am distraught that none of my three children will touch it (My Dh and I probably could manage the whole of the tart on our own but that would not be good). You can get mini chocolate egg moulds from cake craft world if anyone is looking.

This tart looks divine with rhubarb that I love since we've planted one in our veg patch last year. Just love the lovely pinkish color that complement the white chocolate tart very well. Excellent idea making those homemade mini eggs. YUM! ;)

You too, my virtual friend! Teen Baker posted rhubarb recipe not long ago. I need to wait until May to get rhubarb from our garden. There's still about 50 cm of snow on top of it...This tart goes onto to-do list of mine when time comes. Thank you for your sharing.

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